ALIEN Bloodmoon
by chrisallensmith84
Summary: The Crew of the HYEST is awakened from hyper sleep to investigate a distress signal, little do the crew know that it will lead them to the most horrifying adventure of their loves. *Author note: If you read the story, please review it. I am trying to find ways to make it better.
1. Chapter 1

**PART 1: The HYEST**

In the vastness of dark space, there is a nothingness that has befuddled humans for millions of years. Man, in recent years has set foot out into this blackness of space to colonize this emptiness and secure a foothold in the galaxy. In this blackness, a dark shape begins to form, a ship carrying humans to a planet for colonization. The ships name comes into view; the USCSS HYEST. The HYEST is a privately owned Lockmart CM-84B Bison M-Class star freighter. Registration number 884963314, crewed by seven people. Its cargo begins to come into view, shining in the light of the stars; the colonial and mining tug the TARTARUS, containing 20,000,000 tons of processing ore, all the amenities needed for colonization such as housing and machine shops, 5 crew members, and 400 colonists in cryo-sleep. This ship is only three weeks away from its destination, which is LV-184 known as Panamar (7.4 light years from Earth), to drop off the colonist and the tug.

The bridge of the HYEST is dark and void of activity, everything is silent as if the ship is dead. The only sound within the ship's corridors was the hum of machinery. Constantly making thuds, echoing grind in the distance. Occasionally the creak of steel could be heard as the ships bulk would settle and shift as it changed course. The seats are void of life, and the only thing moving are a set of papers that gently blow off a station computer as the air system kicks on. Suddenly computers kick on, and the bridge comes to life. The bridge begins to fill with sounds and light as if it is the fourth of July. The screens lighting up one after the other, and making tons of noise; as if talking in a conversation with each other.

_Command: Auto-Execute. Awaken crew from Cryo-sleep. Emergency protocol 367. C. Smith, H. Smith, J. Smith, J. Latta, A. Latta, A. Ranes, L. Gannett. Bypass main protocols, colonization mission 226 is now a secondary priority. _

Inside the HYEST cryo-chamber, the lights flicker on sluggishly, and the hiss of air rushing in fills the room. The room consist of white padded walls, and several monitors and screens that display the crew roster, vital signs, and other various information. The cryo-tubes light up and the lids slowly rise, revealing the crew of seven members. The first to awake is the captain, Chris Smith. He rubs is head with both hands, starting with his short hair and then moving down to his beard. He sits up slowly onto the edge of his cryotube. He rises to his feet and throws on a robe, covering his average frame, as he does a puppy hops out of his cryotube and runs over to him.

"Good morning, Josie." He says to her. The puppy wags her tail and runs to a cubby and retrieves a ball and places it at his feet and looks at him with anticipation. He picks up the ball and throws it down a corridor, and Josie takes off running as fast as she can to catch it. Chris walks away with a smile on his face, no one can resist the charm of a puppy, no matter how tired they are.

One by one the other crew members slowly awaken and experience the same routine. Eventually all the crew members had convened around the mess hall table to eat a quick breakfast. The room is round, with a small table surrounded by a circular shaped couch with an opening on the left side. On all the walls are many blinking buttons, cabinets, and several food processors. Above the table is a single console with monitors on each side, with a lamp underneath to illuminate the table. Around this circular table sits Chris the captain, to his right is Heather Smith, the first officer and his wife, drying her long hair, then putting it in a bun. Next to her is a large and tall man, this is Jackson Smith, the warrant Officer and cousin to Chris. Next to him, are the married couple Jonathan Latta the science officer, and Amy Latta the navigator. Jon putting on his Duke Ball cap, and Amy crocheting at her seat, shifting her long hair to keep it out of the way. Then there is Ashley Ranes, the expert on Panamar, she was reading a novel, and then Leslie Gannett the medical officer, who was busy putting out all the food, her long blond hair blocking the view of her face. All of them were dressed in standard Weyland-Yutani overalls, each customized to the wearers taste.

"What kinda crappy food did you pack in the galley, Leslie?" Jackson said to her as he let the food fall from his fork in disgust.

"What the company was willing to give us, it looks like eggs, and sausage, but it certainly is in name only; but it has everything a growing boy needs." She said in disgust, as she finally brushes her hair aside.

"Quit complaining, let's eat so that we can prepare for the tug drop." Said the captain.

During the meal, a single light flashes above a secured doorway. "Captain, MUTHUR wants to smooth talk you behind closed doors." Says Jonathan. He gives Chris a quick smirk and tip of his hat, and he returns it and replies, "She can sweet talk me anytime!"

"Hey! Don't be a butt head!" Heather replies. Chris responds, "I'm your butt head only, she doesn't hold a candle to you, dear.", all the crew laugh in response as Chris heads to the door to MUTHUR.

Chris pulls out the security access key card, and inserts it into the slot, and punches in the key code, the door opens into the room. In the room, there is a single seat with a terminal, surrounded by tons of flashing lights and computer screens. He sits in the seat, and it turns to face a single screen. The terminal flashes to life, and MUTHUR begins to awaken. A set of commands pop up on the screen, he moves the selector down to _manual _inquiry, and he begins typing on the terminal:

_OK to Execute Protocol 3221, to colonize the planet?_

_Negative, Protocol 3221 temporarily suspended._

_Clarify?_

_Emergency protocol 367 top priority._

_What is Protocol 367?_

_Emergency mayday signal discovered, crew awakened to investigate immediately all other priorities suspended until order 367 is carried out. S.O.S. located in quadrant 423, transmission is of human origin._

_OK will commence with protocol 367, personal inquiry: how early were we awakened?_

_Three weeks prior to scheduled arrival to planet LV-184._

He shuts down the terminal, the chair spins around, and he exits the room.

He returns to the galley to inform the crew, Heather is playing with Josie, the puppy is playfully growling as she tugs as hard as she can on a stuffed toy, trying her best to pull it away from her, and the others are reclining back in the seats having individual discussions, "Huston, we have a problem." He says as he leans on the table. "We are still 3 weeks away from the planet…"

"Why would MUTHUR wake us up 3 weeks from our destination?" ask Heather, turning toward her husband.

"MUTHUR has intercepted a S.O.S., and got us up to check it out, and under Protocol 367, we are required to investigate the signal, the colonization mission is suspended until we find the source of the transmission." Chris replies, as he leans on the table.

"Will we be compensated for this little detour, financially?" ask Ashley, shifting her tiny frame in the seat, which she barely filled.

Jon answers her, shifting his hat up in order to scratch his forehead, "No, but per our Weyland-Yutani contract, if we do not investigate the source of the signal, we will all have to forfeit our shares, which means no money at all."

"Are there any more questions? If not, let's get this party started." Commands Chris, pushing himself off the table.

With that they all rise from the table, and head towards the bridge. The seven enter the cramped bridge compartment, and take their seats at their stations. They turn on their individual computer screens, bringing the bridge to life, with the lights and sounds of a bustling city. They all begin reading their screens and preforming their duties.

"Jon, can you punch up the mayday on the loud speakers for us?" asked Chris

"Yes sir, captain." He replied. He flips a couple of switches and a loud static filled the bridge as the message played over the speakers.

_Mayday…Justin...last survivor…. adrift...on shuttle…Lena._

"Is there any way to clear up the transmission Jon?" asked Heather.

"No, ma'am, this is the best the filters could do." He replied

"Amy, can you triangulate where the signal is coming from based on the transmission?" asked Chris.

"I can try." She said as she punched buttons on the screen, the computer terminal began to hum and beep, with sound as if it was talking with her. After the noise had subsided, it displayed the information, "The coordinates are 34.65, 56.87, and 44.84, shortest course puts the shuttle only 2 hours away."

"Jackson, how would this hinder our colonization project?" Chris asked.

"Based on my calculations, it would only put us behind by 5 days…., this is a rough estimate of course." He replied.

"OK people, strap in, and prepare to be heroes." Chris said as he strapped into his seat, he taps a small button on his console and _Space Truckin' _begins to play over the loud speakers. All the crew begin to sing with the song, and Josie hops into Heather's lap, wondering about what is happening.

Outside in the blackness of space, the ship comes to life, deck lights, and other exterior subsystems turn on as the ship begins to move toward its new destination, the metal banging, and creaking, as it slowly changes course. The engines lurching into life with a loud bang as the fuel combust, thrusting the ship forward.

After about two hours, a small spec begins to appear in the port side window on the bridge. "Chris, sensors have picked up the shuttle on our port bow." Informs Amy, her console beeping and blinking, lighting up her face in a red glow.

"OK people, it's show time!" Chris exclaims, mimicking the Beetlejuice phrase.

"Dear, I suggest that we slow our approach so that we can assess if there is any damage to the shuttle, and to ensure that it is stable enough to bring on board the HYEST." Heather reports.

"Agreed," responds Jon.

"OK, Amy, bring us alongside nice and slow."

After carefully maneuvering as close to the shuttle, as possible it now filled the whole view within the port side window. "There appears to be no damage to the shuttle from the outside." Heather says

"Jon, can we get a reading on the atmosphere within the shuttle?" asked Chris

Jon begins to punch buttons on his terminal, and the computer responds, "There is Oxygen present within the cabin of the shuttle, it is also structurally sound."

Jackson chimes in, "I'll be one of the first to go in, who else is going to join me?"

"I will." Says Leslie

"As will I." says Chris.

The three crew mates head toward the shuttle bay, and discuss the mystery behind their sudden awakening from hyper-sleep. "I really don't know what to expect." Says Chris. "I think we should be prepared for the worst kind of situation, and arm ourselves just to be safe." Replies Jackson. "I also agree with him Chris, we need to prepare ourselves for any possible situation, before we open the shuttle." Says Leslie. So, they stop at a small set of lockers in the shuttle bay. Leslie grabs medical equipment, while both Chris and Jackson grab a set of small pistols from the lockbox.

As they approach the craft, they notice the name on the shuttle. "The LENA…. why does that name sound so familiar?" Chris ask himself out loud, stroking his bread. Jackson responds, "Wasn't this the shuttle from that ship that disappeared about 6 months ago, out near Zeta 2, that we heard about in the news vids? I can't remember the name of the ship though." They get to the door of the shuttle, and Chris pushes several buttons and it can be heard unlocking, Chris and Jackson ready their weapons. The door swings open, and a rush of stale smelling air burst from the opening, and nothing comes out, and all is silent within the shuttle. They enter the shuttle cautiously, the interior of the craft is dark, everything covered in a fine mist of ice crystals, the shuttle appears to have not had main power in some time because the only thing illuminating the area are the small buttons on the one console next to the cryotube.

"Jackson, see if you can get any power on in the shuttle." Chris commands. Jackson goes over to a console and begins push switches, "Sorry, the only juice left in this old girl is in the small reserved battery that keeps the cryotube power on."

Leslie chimes in, "Chris, according to the cryotube computer, the passenger is Justin Paige, first officer of the USCSS SCHOMBERG…. He is alive, I suggest that we get him out of this tube, he has been stuck in it for 6 months, and needs to be examined."

"OK, let's wake up sleeping beauty, so we can get some answers." Chris says. Leslie hits a couple of switches on the console and the tube lights up, and the top begins to rise. Leslie approaches the tube as Justin begins to wake up, "Can you tell me your name?" she asks.

"My name is Justin… Paige…" He says in a daze.

"What is your rank and ship name?" she asks.

"First Officer of the… USCSS SCHOMBERG..., can I get out of this damn tube now?" He replies. Chris and Jackson help him out of the tube, each one of them putting an arm around his husky body, Leslie then give him some clothes. "Is there any way I can get something to eat? I am starving." He asks. "We will provide you with food after I have given you a complete examination." Leslie replies. "Ok…" Justin replies. As they leave the shuttle. They then take him to the medical bay for his examination.

"Can you remember anything?" asks Leslie as she uses her flashlight to examine his pupil response.

"Nothing that I want to remember, just the horrors I've seen…" he responds.

After the lengthy examination by Leslie and Jon, they take him into the Galley, where the rest of the crew is waiting. "OK Justin, tell us your story, what happened to the SCHOMBERG?" Says Chris. In a shaky voice, he begins to tell his story, "The SCHOMBERG, was conducting one of its usual mineral ore transportation missions from Earth to Thedus. About half way back to Earth, we were taken out of cryo by our ships computer, to investigate, a signal coming from an unknown planet in the Zeta 2 Reticuli system. When we examined the transmission, we found that it was from a person name Elizabeth Shaw, but the message was so jumbled that was the only information we could get from it. Thinking that she was stranded on this planet, we decided to set down on the planet and try to rescue her. If we had known what we were gonna discover, we would never have landed on that God forsaken rock. We did not find Shaw, only a bunch of wreckage from a ship called the PROMETHEUS, but what we did find living on the planet will haunt me forever. We were exploring an abandoned structure, when some kind of creature attached itself to the face of the captain, so we rushed her back to the ship, once we got back on the ship, we tried to take it off her; but the creature bled acid and damaged the ship. Eventually, the creature seemed to die. The captain woke up, and after about a couple of hours, she seemed fine. But, in the middle of our attempt to get off the planet a new creature burst from her chest, we tried to capture the creature, but it grew very quickly and began killing us all one by one, it had no purpose, it seemed to kill us for the fun of it. I was the only one left alive, so I set the ship to self-destruct and used the shuttle to escape the planet, I had to erase all evidence of the creature…., I will kill myself before I go out like the captain and the rest of my crew did" As he finished he just lapsed into a daze, as if he was an emotionless machine that shut off.

"OK Justin, here's what we are gonna do. We will take you back to Earth. We have a spare cryotube, we're gonna put you in stasis, but first we must complete our mission to drop off the colonist." Informed Chris. "OK, just as long as I get to go home, even though I hate those damned tubes." Justin replied. Chris and Jackson walk him to the back of the tug. Josie nipping at their heels, trying to figure out who this stranger is in her home. They enter this very vast room. The ceilings, and walls are covered in slightly swinging pods. As Justin gets closer to one of these pods, he examines it closer. Within the frost covered glass window on the pod, he can see a woman, frozen in cryo, her face covered in a light frosting. On the pod is the name _A. Davis_. They stop in front of a row, Chris pushes a button on a panel, and the row comes to life, rotating until an empty pod appears. The pod opens, a fine mist plumes out from the opening.

"OK, here is your new home away from home." Says Jackson. Justin enters the pod, the two men place the random electrodes on him, they hit a few buttons, the pod closes, and Justin enters stasis, Chris hits the button, and the pod rotates back into its proper position.

The corridors within the ship are dark and quiet, only lit by the emergency safety lights, giving the halls a creepy atmosphere, the cricking of the metal can be heard as it settles back down into a rested state, the faint sound of voices can be heard echoing through the corridors. The crew had been gathered in the galley to discuss the current situation that they had just witnessed. "So, what do you guys think about Justin's story?" Chris ask his crew mates, leaning on the table as he usually does.

"Well it is obvious that he has been through something that has affected him down to his core, but I still just cannot believe his story, it reminds me too much of a bad science fiction movie." Responds Heather, her small frame shifting uncomfortably in the seat.

"I would have to agree with Heather, he has been through something very traumatic, and it has left him shell-shocked, but I doubt it was some kind of creature, probably a mining accident or decompression of the ship." Replies Amy.

"But just imagine if such a creature existed, a perfect organism, I would love to get my hands on a sample of the creature or a live specimen, I wish I could discuss this creature with Justin." Pipes in Jon, studying the readouts from Justin's examination.

"If we were to go after such a _creature_, we would need to go in with a plan. If such a creature existed, personally I believed he snapped, murdered his crew mates, and made up the story." says Jackson, brushing his thick hair out of his eyes.

"A creature such as this, a literal killing machine, with a great defense mechanism, would make a great deal of money in the weapons field." Ashley says, twirling her short hair between her fingers.

"The real question is of Justin's well-being, it is obvious that something has affected him, whether it really was a creature or if he snapped and killed everyone and creating the creature in his mind. He is obviously unstable." Replied Leslie, who is going over her notes on Justin's examination.

Josie, lets out a playful bark, but only to yaw immediately after, cuing in the captain that it was time to get back to cryo. "OK, boys and girls, let's get the last ship systems checks done."

"OK people, assholes and elbows, let's go!" Shouts Jackson.

The crew scurries around the ship and the tug, checking various systems, like ants in an anthill. Eventually they all made their way back to the bridge, to run one last computer systems check. Chris went back to MUTHUR, to finalize the process.

_Protocol 367 executed. Shuttle LENA found. Fist officer of SCHOMBERG, Justin Paige, found. Account of the loss the SCHOMBERG logged with ship computer. Paige has been put into cryo-stasis and will be taken back to Earth after completion of colonization mission. Un-suspend protocol 3221, and continue mission?_

_Protocol 367 completed, final systems checks complete, continue protocol 3221. _

The crew return to the cryo-chamber to prepare for hyper-sleep. The door opens, the lights flicker on, and the tubes slowly raise their lids, awaiting their occupants. "OK people, you know the drill." Chris says. They all begin to undress themselves and place their own electrodes on their bodies. Leslie, Jackson, and Ashley enter their tubes first, giving their goodbyes to the rest of the crew. Amy is the next to get into her tube, Jon goes over to her tube, "I love you baby, I'll see ya on the other side." And leans down and kisses her. He hits the button on her tube and closes it. He then gets into his own tube and Chris hits the button to close it, "See ya in three weeks' man."

Chris then walks over to Heather's cryotube, which she had already gotten into. He walks over to her, pulls a stool over and has a seat next to her. "what do you really think about Justin's story dear?" She sits up in the pod, and ponders the question. "Personally, I think he has been through an extreme situation, whether he snapped or because of an attack by the creature, I don't really know I still think we should get him the help he needs, I just know that we should be careful. I would hate to lose you or any one of the crew, after all we are all a family."

"I still don't know what to really think about his situation myself. His story is hard to believe, a creature that is unstoppable, that kills without hesitation. I need more time to think on it, but I will be careful." He leans in and kisses her, "I love you, Heather." He hits the button, and her pod closes. He gets up, but does not go to his pod, he makes his way to the LENA_._ Inside the shuttle, he sits in the command seat, and flips a few switches, and pushes a set of buttons. The shuttle lights, readouts, and other computer screens come on. Josie joins him and jumps into his lap as he begins to converse with MUTHUR.

MUTHUR_, access LENA main computer, priority bypass authorization code Smith, C. 01301984._

_Access Granted to LENA main computer granted. _

He looks at all the options and finds the black box recordings. He selects the option, and a set of archived logs appears on the screen. He selects a log that is labeled "Organism removal" and it begins playing.

_This is Science Officer Alex Herndon of the USCSS SCHOMBERG reporting. Today we tried to remove the unknown organism from Captain Russell's face. Assisting me was First Officer Justin Paige. We decided that the best way to remove the organism was to cut the five "fingers" and the tail off the creature and lift it off his face. We made the first incision along the first "finger", when we did this some type of molecular acid poured from the wound and damaged some of the subsystems on several decks as it ate through the flooring panels. So, we decided to just wait and see what happens…who knows what this organism is doing to the captain. Overall, it's a very fascinating creature, the company will be very pleased with our find. Science Officer Alex Herndon signing off…"_

Chris continued to sit and listen to the different logs, perplexed and shocked at the fact the Justin's story was in fact real. He left the shuttle and walked down one of the dark corridors back to his terminal on the bridge. At his terminal, be attempted to contact the Weyland-Yutani representative for the mission.

_BEGIN TRANSMISSION, Mission parameters have changed, found shuttle of USCSS SCHOMBERG, and one survivor, first officer Justin Paige. Requesting immediate guidance on how to proceed with colonization mission?_

_Continue colonization mission as directed by the Weyland-Yutani contract 56744898-12 to crew of USCSS HYEST registration number 884963314. With the addendum, that upon completion, return to gateway station, with required personnel cargo, Justin, P. END TRANSMISSION. _

Seeing that his orders were clear, he then went back to the cryo-chamber, still pondering the amazing story that he had learned from Justin and the flight recorder of the SEHOMBERG. He undresses, places the electrodes on his body, then enters his cryotube, followed by Josie who lays down beside him. He pushes the button and the hatch begins to close around him, then the room was filled the darkness and silence.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2: Panamar**

Three weeks have passed, the HYEST begins to emerge into sunlight from a nearby star, a red dwarf, the light from the sun, giving the ship and tug an eerie red glow. The ship slowly begins to orbit the planet Panamar. The light blue planet, shines in the sun, devoid of any noticeable landmasses, except one medium sized continent, that seems to have many different land forms within its borders. The red dwarf gives the planet a slight red tint, and the single moon that orbits the planet shines like a crimson drop of blood. The ocean of the planet looks like blood in the sunlight, this strange phenomenon has caused many people to give this planet a nickname, "Planet Blood".

The crew is once again awakened from hyper-sleep, after the lengthy job of getting dressed and eating breakfast, they go to their stations on the bridge and activate the ships systems in preparation for the descent down to the planet. They then make their way to the tug, to awaken the TARTARUS crew. They enter a small alcove on the bridge of the tug, and find 5 cryotubes lining the walls. The crew each pick a tube and begin the wake-up process for the crew. The first to awaken is James Newsome, the facilities manager and IT tech specialist on the tug. He is tall, skinny, he was almost too tall for his cryotube. As soon as he exits the tube he kneels, "Thank you lord for bringing us here safely, and without serious incident, Amen... Are we still on schedule?" he asks Chris.

"We are about 3 days behind due to an unforeseen issue that MUTHUR got us up for, but other than that we will be ready to go just as soon as you power up the TARTARUS systems." Chis replies.

The next technician to wake up is Bradley Taylor, the mechanical engineer of the tug. Bradley, a tall large man, with a big bushy beard. "Man, now I know what a pop sickle feels like." He jokingly responds. The crew wakes Bradley's wife, Jane, the biology engineer for the embryos, and plants to be used by the colonist. She too was large and tall, just like her husband. She doesn't really say anything to the crew, she throws her hair into a bun, puts on her scrubs and goes over to her husband, kisses him and checks his vitals along with her own, "How are you feeling honey?" she asks. "Dear, I'm as fit as a leopard in a chicken coop."

Michelle McAndrew is the next of the tug crew to awaken, she says not a word to the crew, and immediately goes to the cryo chamber and checks on the status of the 400-frozen colonist. The last of the TARTARUS crew to be taken out of cryo is Alan Miller, the mining expert and the go to guy of the group, the de-facto leader. He is very short for a guy, with curly hair, and hazel eyes "So, how's my rig?" he asked Jackson.

"She's ship-shape, and a fine piece of machinery." Jackson replies.

Josie at this point had entered the rig and was scrambling about the room looking for attention, since the ship was not yet in position to begin the descent to the surface, the crews of both the HYEST and the TARTARUS played with her until the ship was ready, much to her delight. After about 30 minutes, the ship was in position for the descent to the planet.

The crew of the HYEST return to the bridge, and the others remain on the bridge of the TARTARUS, which is laid out in a similar manner to the HYEST bridge. Both crews conduct their pre-flight checks on their individual terminals, making both bridges look like a flight control room. To ensure that both ships conduct their flights correctly, they stay in constant contact with each other.

"OK, TARTARUS, we are ready to disconnect the umbilical form the HYEST." Says Chris. "You are a go to disconnect the umbilical, HYEST." Responds Alan. "OK, Amy engage umbilical disengaging protocols." With the flip of a switch, the ship lurched downward, and began a small free-fall away from the TARTARUS. "OK, Amy how are we looking?", "We are in the pipe five by five, everything looks good so far." The ship now free of the TARTARUS, begins its descent toward Panamar.

"Jon, Amy where is the best place to set both the HYEST and the TARTARUS?" Chris asks. "Based on my scans, I would say at the LaGrange point in the flat plains area of the island." Says Jon. "I would have to agree with Jon on this one, that would be the best place to land both craft as it is the ideal spot for the start of a colony." Replies Amy. "OK, Amy set our course coordinates to 56.86, -56.89, 84.84; take it nice and slow."

"TARTARUS, how are you doing over there?" ask Chris. Bradley responds, "As well as a squirrel in a pile of aluminum foil", this kind of left the crew perplexed. "What my mechanic, is trying to say, is that we are doing OK." Replies Alan. "10-4, good to hear, the landing zone is at coordinates 56.86, -56.89, 84.84. See you guys on the other side." Replies Jackson.

Both ships pitch and roll as they both descend to the planet's one and only landmass. As they make their descent, each crew member onboard the HYEST watches their control monitors carefully, Chris and Heather were watching the course overview, along with monitoring MUTHURS' control functions, Jackson was monitoring overall control of the ship by each individual, Jon and Ashley were monitoring scans of the planet's atmosphere, mineral make-up, and system exterior temperature as they descended through the atmosphere, Leslie was closely monitoring the crew; their stress level, blood pressure, heart rate, and other vital readings, and Amy had her hands on the control stick, as she watched her monitor as it guided her on her specific path to the planet surface through a system of passing windows that would shift in orientation as the course needed to be changed. "Amy, adjust course to 0.50, and decrease thrust by one third, and then easy as she goes." Chris says to her. "Aye, sir." Chris opens the com to Jon and Ashley's stations, "Can you guys give me a break down of the planet's atmosphere and surface?" "Yes sir" Jon chimes in, "The planet's atmosphere is primarily Oxygen based, it's pretty much like Earth's atmosphere, with similar weather patterns, so you can get fresh water from rain storms." Ashley reports, "As for the surface, it's made of lava-based rock, has a makeup of clay, sand, iron, and other basic minerals in the soil. The vegetation is vast and like what we have on earth, so it's probably eatable, as for the water, 80% of the planet is an ocean, that is a salt, sulfur, H2O mix, but there are pockets of fresh water on the surface and below."

The HYEST breaks through the clouds and begins the landing process. The HYEST safely makes it to the landing site without incident successfully. As the crew is shutting down, control systems at each of their stations, a garbled message came over the loud speaker, "HYEST, lost…por…. booster…attempting to compensate….", "Repeat, your last transmission TARTARUS, repeat your last transmission…" yelled Jackson. The only response they got back was static on the intercom. They all rushed to the aft side window to see if they could spot the tug coming down from the sky.

As they watched, the TARTARUS, descended through the clouds, the tug was leaning slightly to one side, there was smoke and flames bellowing out of one of the port side boosters, explaining why the tug was coming down so fast. Suddenly the other boosters erupted in a rush of flame and smoke, as they were being pushed to their limit and the tug began to slow down as it approached the planet surface, gracefully touching down in a cloud of steam and smoke. Alan's voice came over the intercom, "HYEST, this is TARTARUS, we are reporting all systems now functioning, and all on board are 100% A-OK, do you copy?" "Roger that TARTARUS, good to have ya here, nice flying, and welcome home." Responds Jackson.

Both crews are now onboard the TARTARUS, on the bridge they discuss the next move of the mission. "So, Alan, what is the next step in the project?" asked Chris. "First order of business is to awaken the first 100 colonists that we are going to need to help us set up the facilities in the tug to convert it into a colony, such as the living quarters, mess hall, various machine shops, science labs, and the three ore refineries. The next step is then to set up the facilities, and begin mining the resources so that we can start refining them into something usable."

The crews of both vessels head to the cryo-chamber, and begin the long process of waking the 100 colonists to help with the facilities set up. One by one, the HYEST crew would awaken a colonist, assign them to a section of the tug and send them to start their work, where they would assist the TARTARUS engineers. About half way through the process, Chris realizes that it is time to get the HYEST ready for departure, to save a little bit of time. He goes over to Heather and tells her his plans. "Dear, I'm going to go get the HYEST ready for departure, ya'll need to stay here and finish up the process, I am going to need a little help, so I am going to wake up Justin." She replies, "Are you sure that is such a good idea dear?", "I will be very careful dear, the ship he was on, the SCHOMBERG, is exactly like our ship, so he knows the systems, and how they work making it a faster process, and you and the others can join us when you are done here, I promise I will keep a very close eye on him". He goes to Justin's pod and wakes him up from his stasis, "Justin, I'm sorry for waking you from stasis so soon, but my crew is busy with the colony tug, so I am going to need your help getting the HYEST ready to leave as soon as possible. The process with your help should take us about 16 hours."

"OK, count me in." He says as he gets out of the pod, he stops as if in pain, and shrugs it off, thinking that it's just because he just got out of stasis.

The two men, work on the HYEST, completing system checks, running simulations, and plotting coordinates, and other odds and ends, while the rest of the crew, engineers, and colonist continue working on setting up the tug facilities. "Justin, can you check this simulation that I put into the computer, punch it up on monitor L2.", Justin sits for a couple of minutes as the simulation runs, changes a couple of commands, and re-runs the simulation. "OK, the simulation, checks out, but I did notice that the fuel line to engine 2 is corroded on one side, and we really should replace it before leaving." They continued to go around the bridge preforming their checks, all the while, Josie slept in Heather's station chair, oblivious to what was going on.

On board the TARTARUS, the crew were finishing up with the last of the colonist, and decided to go back to the HYEST to assist with the final preparations. Before leaving, they went up to Alan to see if there was anything else, they could help with, without giving it a second thought, he thanked them for the help, and told them to go back to their ship. Traveling from ship to ship was easy since the ships were only a few meters apart in a flat field, a quick ten-minute trek from ship to ship. When they arrived at the ship, Chris and Justin were just finishing up the final system checks on the ship. "So, what's left to do guys?" asked Heather. "Thanks to Justin here, there are only a few things left to do, I am going to confirm all the changes we have made so far with MUTHUR." Chris goes to MUTHUR's chamber and begins to type in new commands.

Proceed with departure plan A3491?

Plan A3491 accepted, Panamar to Earth via shipping lane 26843, departure time 0900, travel time 3 years 41 days. Confirm order….

Order confirmed by Smith, C. ID number 013084, Captain USCSS HYEST.

Order Confirmed.

He exits the room and joins the rest of the crew in the galley.

With the final system check on board the HYEST complete, the rest of the crew is relaxing in the galley, when Bradley comes in, "I'm getting a strange electrical signal coming from refinery number one, can someone come with me to help me find the source, and fix it, cause it's probably going to be a two person job.", Justin stands up, "I'll go check it out with him, I know these refinery systems very well, I'm pretty sure I can knock it out really quick, ya'll have done so much for me, I'll take care of this one." He gets up and follows Bradley off the ship. As they make their way to refinery number one, Bradley strikes up a conversation with Justin, "So, I know you're not a part of the HYEST crew, and you are not a part of my crew, so where did you come from?"

"I was part of the crew of the USCSS SCHOMBERG…", Justin replies.

"Wow, so you were on the ship that has been missing for 6 months?"

"Yeah, the whole ship was lost due to a situation."

"What kind of situation?" Bradley asks.

"Let's just say you won't believe me if I told you about it."

"Oh, you'd be surprised about what I would believe, I once witnessed 2 cargo haulers, one with animal protein, and the other with sugar collide and form an instant Gelatin mold around both ships, it was disastrous for the ships but made every kid within 200 miles as happy as foxes on a chicken farm."

As Justin laughed, he stopped in his tracks, he could feel a sharp pain in his chest, like nothing he had ever felt before. "Dude, are you OK?" Bradley ask, as he wonders what is happening to this guy he is with. Justin composes himself, "Yeah, I'm a little sore from being shut up in a cryotube for over 6 months." They continue, and finally reach refinery number one. As they track the signal, they find the source of the problem, "It looks like this wire within the conduit, has a short that is arching across it, if we can get some tools this should only take about two to three hours to fix." Bradley goes to a nearby cabinet, opens it and retrieves a small toolbox, and returns to the site and they begin working on the conduit. "I cannot believe that I missed this, I've been chasing this like a wolf chases a jack rabbit, if this had been a snake it would have bitten me, thanks for the assist."

"Not a problem, I'm glad to help." Justin replied. As they begin to work, Justin continues to have to stop every so often because he feels a terrible pain. "Are you sure you are OK Justin?" he assures him that he was OK, and they continue to work. Three hours have passed, and they finally finish the work. Both men, get down from the conduit and put away the tools, and begin to make their way back to the HYEST. Suddenly Justin stops in his tracks, "I don't feel so good, I feel like my insides are being twisted in all kinds of knots, I don'….", he suddenly falls to the ground, screaming in pain, he begins to thrash around uncontrollably, Bradley begins to freak out, "What's wrong, come on dude, tell me what do you need?" Bradley rushed to Justin's side, he tries to hold him down, thinking that he is having a seizure. They both struggle, as if in a tug of war, Justin convulsing, and Bradley trying to hold him still. As he watches, through the screams, and thrashing, Justin's chest suddenly bulges, and his shirt becomes drenched in blood, Bradley releases him, in shock. He continues to thrash about, blood rushing from his chest. Bradley is horrified as he hears Justin's ribs crack and break. Suddenly, Justin's chest Explodes in a geyser of blood and tissue, Justin falls silent and stops thrashing about. Then a small creature emerges from his chest. The creature slowly looks around the room, both to the left and right, it screams and lunges out of Justin's now open chest. Dumbfounded, Bradley just stands there and watches as the two-foot-long worm-like creature slithers off into the vent system.

Finally coming to his senses, he runs over to the nearest fire alarm and pulls the switch down, setting it off. The alarm blares through the entire interior of the TARTARUS, alerting all the remaining colonist, and the crew of the HYEST. Without hesitation, they all get up and run toward the Tug. All the colonist and the crew meet in the galley of the TARTARUS, and begin asking themselves what is going on. "what in the world is going on?" Chris asks Jon. "I have no clue at all, so your guess is as good as mine." He replies. This question began to circulate among the crew, and colonist.

Alan goes over to the wall and turns off the alarm. Suddenly, Bradley burst into the room, out of breath, "Justin is dead, some kind of creature burst from his chest and is loose in refinery one." Realizing what has happened, Chris gets up and rushes out of the room, Heather and the others chase after him, "Dear, what's wrong?" Heather yells. "Everything Justin told us was true, the creature, and everything. After you all went into hyper-sleep, I went back to the LENA and listened to the black box recordings, he's story was true, so I asked WY for advice, but got no real response."

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Heather asked him. "Mainly because I got no advice from WY, so I kept it too myself, because we had too much work to do." By then they had arrived at refinery number one, and found Justin's body. "Jackson, Jon, I want you guys to grab some plastic and wrap his body completely, Heather, Leslie, lets follow the blood trail, we need to find this creature…. we cannot harm it, it has molecular acid for blood, we don't want to damage the rig or hurt ourselves." He grabs a nearby bag to use to capture it. They follow the blood trail, through the room, out into the nearby hall, and come to a dead end. They notice that the blood trail ends at now damaged, open vent. "Well this isn't good…." Heather comments, "this will make tracking the creature rather difficult…" replies Leslie. "Leslie, don't we have a motion tracker in the maintenance bay of the HYEST?", "Yes we do, but its missing a circuit board, and a battery.", "Well go get it, I'm pretty sure the tug has the parts you will need to fix it, so we can use it, and then get with Jon and fashion some kind of stun baton for us to use.", "OK, Chris, I'm on it." She leaves and heads back to the HYEST.

"OK, guys let's get Justin's body out of here, and to the med bay on the HYEST. I want an autopsy performed on him." Chris commands. They fashion a make shift gurney out of a spare floor panel. They lift Justin's body and slowly make their way back to the HYEST. Once onboard the ship, they lay Justin's body on the med lab table. "OK, Leslie, I need you to perform a full autopsy on his body, I want to know anything that is unusual, or has changed from what is considered normal within the human anatomy." They all leave the med bay to let Leslie do her work.

Several hours pass, and Leslie appears through the doorway of the galley where the rest of the crew is waiting. "OK, here is what I found, the first unusual thing is a set of scar tissue that is around his head, it's in the shape of a hand, and there is scar tissue also around the neck as if something was wrapped around his neck like a tail. The next thing was that I noticed more scar tissue in the throat as if something was forced down his esophagus. When examining the chest cavity, it is obvious as to what killed him, severe physical trauma, the internal organs, have all been shifted out of place, leaving a large cavity in the abdomen."

"Do you have any idea or theory about the creature using your findings?" Chris asked her. "I do, my theory is that, this creature is like a butterfly. There is some type of egg, when it hatches, the first form of this creature is born, it has 5 legs and a tail, its sole purpose is to find a living host, when it does, it attaches to the host face, secures itself with its legs and tail, it then forces an egg or embryo down the victim's throat, and then dies, releasing its grip. The host them wakes up, with no memory of what has happened, at the same time the embryo grows into its next form, shifting the organs to make room for itself. Then, when it is ready, it forces its way out of the host, through the chest, killing the host. What happens next I have no clue about."

"OK, the next thing we need to do is to try and capture the creature, with a little over 100 of us awake, I see no need to wake up any more colonists. How many stun batons, motion trackers, and nets can you and Jon make?", "We can make about 10 units of each, with our current supplies and with what we can use from the tug's supplies as well." Jon replied. "How long will it take you to make all 30 units?" Jackson asks, "it will take about 28 hours." Leslie responds. "OK, get to work as soon as you possibly can, the rest of you, help me prepare a pit, we are going to burn Justin's body."

Jon and Leslie toil away in the machine shop making the motion trackers, stun batons, and nets as fast as they could. At the same time, Chris and the rest of the crew finish digging the pit, the blood red moon giving the night sky an eerie crimson color, as if the planet was trying to warn the people that they were going to die. Now finished with their work, the HYEST crew are gathered around the pit. The tug crew then brings Justin's body down to the pit and lays it down, his body now wrapped in the USCSS flag. Chris lights a flare, the red light giving an even more eerie red glow to the grave site. "Does anyone want to say anything?" Chris ask the group. "I didn't know him, but he seemed like a nice guy, that just had really bad luck." Bradley said. "Anybody else... No, here we lay to rest Justin Paige, the first officer of the SCHOMBERG, may the stars continue to guide you in the vastness of space, and into the afterlife, whatever you may believe. Amen." He then tosses the flare into the pit, and the body burst into flames., and they all watch in silence, each person thinking about the situation that they are now in.

As they watched the fire, Chris began to speak, "I don't know what this creature is, or what it wants. But what I do know is that I want to survive, and I want to make sure that all of you survive with me. We are going to hunt this thing down and kill it." Heather moves closer to him, and grabs his hand and holds it tight, as the fire slowly continues to burn.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3: The Hunters and the Hunted**

Within hours of burning Justin's body, the crew of the HYEST and TARTARUS gather all 100 of the colonist in the galley. Chris chimes in, "OK people, we have a situation on board the TARTARUS. There is some sort of organism loose on the tug…" the room filled with random conversations as he continued, "We don't know what it is, but what we do know is that this THING was inside someone that we picked up from a shuttle adrift in space. We have a plan to capture the creature, our engineers have fashioned stun batons, motion trackers, and nets for you to use to catch the creature. You will break off into groups of five and be assigned a section of the tug to investigate. Once a group catches the creature, we have also prepared a cage for it to be kept in until we can figure out what do to with it. Are there any questions?"

"How big is this creature?" Asked a colonist. "It's roughly around 3 feet long, and resembles a snake. It is also tan in color. That's really all that we know from the witness who saw the creature, if there are no more questions, number off by 5 and come to us to get your gear." As he finished, the crews of the HYEST and TARTARUS, split into separate groups, and the colonist began to split into their groups and get their equipment. Then, one by one, each group left for their assigned areas. This is how the hunt begins….

The xenomorph remained motionless within the air duct system. It could sense that there were other creatures present, it could feel the vibrations as these creatures began to come closer to it. Each of these creatures gave off a different set of scents that the creature could "see" as separate colors. There were five different creatures in the same room below where it was sitting. The xenomorph was curious as to what these creatures were trying to do to it. The curiosity getting the better of itself, it decided to go and investigate these new mysterious fleshy creatures, with one purpose in its mind, are they a threat to me, and can I use them.

The group of colonist were investigating the third mining rig, the group was armed with a motion tracker, 2 stun batons, and a small net. "What exactly is it that we are looking for?", one of them asked another. "I have no idea, but they said we would know it when we see it…" unknown to the group below, the xenomorph, was watching them intently, listening to their strange language, thinking to itself, "what are these strange creatures, talking about? Are they going to hurt me?" As it waited, it began to think about these creatures, it then remembered from its host memories that these beings were called "Humans". As it watched, one of the group got separated from the others by another small, strange small furry creature that walked on four legs.

"Just what are you doing here, you cute little puppy?" the colonist asked Josie. Who had been following the group for some time, setting off their motion tracker. She perked up at the attention and just wanted someone to play with her. She suddenly could sense something and immediately began to growl and bark ferociously. "Aw, I'm not going to hurt you, little one."

The colonist, had an uneasy feeling, because of Josie's reaction to him. As he was getting back to his feet, the xenomorph decided that this was the perfect time to investigate this strange prey that it had been tracking, so it descended from the ventilation shaft as quietly as it could, but it was too late, it's prey had noticed the sound it made and began to turn around. As the xenomorph stood up right, it started to study this human creature for a second. It just stood there, staring at it, with what the xenomorph assumed were eyes and a mouth wide open. The xenomorph could smell the fear coming from this human in front of it; giving the human a soft green aura. The human dropped the thing it was holding, this frightened the xenomorph and it did the only thing that it knew how to do, it attacked the human, which let out an ear shattering scream as the xenomorph tried to contain the strange being, it struggled and fought back, the xenomorph began to get tired of fighting with this human, so it decided to use its most deadly weapon, it opened its mouth, and struck this strange being in the head with its inner jaws, the being went limp it its arms, and the green aura faded slowly as it died. Just as this human died, the xenomorph could feel the other humans coming in its direction from the vibrations it could feel with its feet, and from the now recognized smell of humans that it had learned, so it decided the best thing to do was to take its kill into the ventilation shaft and hide.

The other four colonist had entered the main equipment chamber of refinery number one, they began to shout out their missing group members name, "Nathan, where are you?" they called out randomly. The group then started to hear the puppy barking. They cautiously began to make their way to a dark corner of the complex. Once they arrived they found the puppy covered in blood, and barking ferociously at a ventilation hole. As the group started to move their flashlight up to the hole, they noticed a trail of blood leading up to the mouth of the hole.

The xenomorph now knew what these humans could be used for, they would make perfect host for a nest. It was waiting patiently for the right moment to attack the four humans left in the room it was in; these four would make great host for the eggs it would have to make. Just as the colonist were about to leave, one of them heard a noise coming from just above their head, as they began to look up; the xenomorph, came down on them, used its weapons to incapacitate them, and rushed back into the vent with its prey. As it examined the human it still had an aura around it so it knew the human was still alive. Now all it had to do was figure out a place to take it. As it began to think, it remembered another room where a bunch of these humans were stored in big white boxes, this would be the perfect place for the creature to make its nest, but first it had to capture the other three remaining humans, and raise some offspring to help with capturing the rest.

Several hours had passed, and still there was no sign of the creature that everyone was hunting. The hunting teams could not find any trace of the creature, and had no idea what it was doing. The engineering crew of the TARTARUS were making their way to the cryo-chamber, which was their assigned section of the tug to look for the creature. They were huddled into a tight grouping, in a back to back formation, as they swept each room that they were going through. Alan was at the front of the group, focused on looking ahead and guiding the group around the twisting corridors, Bradley and Jane were situated behind Alan facing the doorways on the corridor, Michelle and James were side by side facing the rear. They began to hear strange noises coming from the corridors and they could not tell what was making them. As far as they knew no one else was supposed to be in this part of the ship. Alan pushed the comms button on the wall, "Is there anyone on Deck 3 headed into D Block?" When the response came over the loud speaker, they were horrified as they began to hear random screams coming from the colonist that were investigating the other areas. "I need to get to the cryo-bay, NOW!" Michelle shouted as she ran off towards the cryo-bay. James tried to stop her as she ran past him, "Guys we have to stop her, we don't know where that creature is or how big it has actually gotten!" They all began to run after her as fast as they could. As they ran past the corridors, they quickly scanned them to make sure that the creature was not hiding in the dimly lit areas. When they finally reached the cryo-chamber, they were horrified by what they saw.

The door to the room had been thrown open with such a force, that it took the door of the tracks, leaving it cocked to one side, and the lights within the room were flickering, making it extremely hard to see what was in the room. All of a sudden, a scream could be heard coming from within the room, "Guys, that's Michelle, come on, she's in trouble!" Shouted Alan. The four crew members rush into the room and are shocked by what they see, the entire room is covered in a black, translucent resin type substance. The room also had increased in temperature, now the room was humid, sticky, and a low hung mist covered the floor. "What in the heck, happened in here?" Bradley exclaimed. " I have no idea honey, but this could not have been caused by that tiny little, creature, you saw." Replied Jane.

"Whatever this stuff is, it has clearly damaged the climate control system on this deck, I should try to see if I can fix it." James said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. They continued to move further into the room, which was now more claustrophobic, the webbing had made the room a whole lot smaller, many of the cryo-tubes were still sitting in place, and operating. But some of them were entangled within the webbing. When they finally came to the end of the room, where the control station was, they found Michelle lying on the floor, "Alan, here she is… what in the hell is wrapped around her face!" Shouted Jane. Alan and the others came to her side, and examined the creature now attached to Michelle's face. The creature resembled a spider, but it had a tail and was twice the size. Its tail wrapped around her neck, and each of its fingers was gripping her head tightly. "OK, Bradley and Jane, keep an eye on Michelle, while James and I find something to make a stretcher out of." Said Alan.

"OK" they both replied. Both Alan and James began to cross over to the other side of the control station, it was then that they noticed the four leathery objects at the corner of the cryo-chamber. The objects were oval in shape, about three feet tall, and had a slimy appearance. "What in the heck to you think these things are?" asked Alan.

"I have no clue Alan." Replied James. As they started to draw in closer to these objects; two of them began to open. Each of the objects opened as if like a flower blooming, with four petals. Alan and James lean in close to get a better look…. Bradley and Jane still sitting near Michelle, hear a noise coming from the direction of James and Alan. "You guys OK over there?" they both asked. After several minutes, there is no answer. "Do you suppose something happened to them?" Jane asked Bradley.

"There's only one way to find out." He replied. So, they both get up and begin to walk in the direction that Alan and James had gone. They slowly moved across the room, only to notice that both James and Alan had the same creature attached to their own faces.

"I don't like this honey; can we get out of here?" Jane asked nervously as she scanned the room for signs of the creature. "We are not leaving without them, help me make something to carry them on." He responded. As they were rummaging around the room for supplies to make a carrier, Bradley happened to bump one of the egg-shaped objects, noticing the egg, he stopped. "Jane, come over here and look at this thing, I've never seen anything like this."

She ventured over to where he was standing, "These seem to be some sort of egg, or incubator for something." As they got closer to the objects to investigate, both objects opened, as they both peered inside, they could see a wriggling mass of flesh and organs, moving as if something was under it moving around. Then, without warming, a pair of creatures leaped out at their faces, knocking both of them on their backs.

All Bradley could see was darkness, it felt as if someone was smothering him with a hand wrapped around his neck and one around his face. All he could think about was not being able to breath, he tried to struggle to get free, but all that seemed to do was make the being tighten its grip around his neck. The harder he fought, the tighter the grip. Eventually, he just could not struggle anymore and he just gave up. Suddenly, a rush of air filled his nose and mouth. He opened his eyes, his throat was extremely sore and all he could think about was wanting a drink of water. He tried to move, but unable to, he realized he had been encased in the webbing attached to the wall. As he continued to struggle, he suddenly came face to face with the creature, which at this point was huge. It stood at about seven feet tall, its sleek, black, chitinous body shining in the low light of the chamber. It seemed to be sniffing him. He then realized what it was doing, he had one of these creatures growing inside of him. After it left, he looked around, he saw his wife cocooned next to him with one of those creatures still attached to her face, he also found Alan and James across from him, both were also cocooned with creatures on their faces. He then came to the realization that their fate was soon going to be the same as Justin's. As he struggled, he was able to reach his comms device. He pressed it, and sent out a message to the crew of the HYEST, but there was nothing but silence….

Chris sat in MUTHUR's control chamber on board the HYEST, he had been sitting there for a couple of hours, trying to figure out different scenarios on how to capture the creature. He was hoping that the computer could help with finding and stopping the creature. So, he flips the switch and MUTHUR comes back to life, and he begins to type on the command console.

Advisement on current situation, how can we trap the unknown organism?

Unknown…more information required.

What are the chances that this organism will kill all of us?

Unknown…more information required.

"Great, thanks for nothing you piece of junk."

Current status of cryo-chamber

Authorization required, Special Order 938 currently in effect.

What is Special Order 938?

Unauthorized access, Access denied.

Override, Smith, C. 01301984, Authorization Beta, Alpha, Tango.

Override accepted...

Special Order 398: Priority One: Insure return of organism from the USCSS SCHOMBERG for analysis, by any means necessary. All other considerations secondary. Crew and Colonist expendable.

Chris sat there staring motionless as he stared at the screen, he could not believe that the company would send his crew, his family, to get this organism, and considered them and the colonist expendable. Frustrated he got up and left the chamber to meet the other crew members in the galley.

"So, what did MUTHUR have to say dear?" asked Heather.

"You're not going to like it, she had no advice on how to kill the creature, mainly due to a special-order protocol that is now in effect, 938. It was created by the company to ensure the survival of the creature for study, and all other consideration are secondary, and WE are expendable assets."

As they were still discussing their options, Bradley's voice came over the PA system, exhaustedly, he explained, "Chris, anybody on this channel; the creature is no longer small, its huge and has created a nest in the cryo-chamber to raise its young. I was able to make it out of there. It is too late for Alan, James, Michelle, and the rest of us. We all have these things growing inside of us, for the sake of all that is holy, please come and torch this place. Kill this thing." The loudspeaker fell silent….

Chris and the other HYEST crew members respond to Bradley's message, "Don't say that, we can still save you and Jane, we can put ya'll in the extra cryo-tubes on the HYEST. Just hang in there we are on our way." They all get up out of their seats and rush to the armory. Inside they grab incinerators, motion trackers, stun batons, and anything else that can be used as a weapon. They then slowly make their way to the cryo-chamber. They adopted a similar pattern to what the tug crew had used. Chris at the front with an incinerator, and motion tracker, and the other back to back as they made their way to the chamber….

The nest was warm and felt safe. A constant thump could be heard just above its head, and the rush of air in and out could be felt on either side of its body. The xenomorph laid against the warm fleshly mass, because it provided comfort, it felt safe. As it curled up, preparing to go to sleep, it could hear the scream of one of its siblings in the distance. It also began to hear muffled voices, "Bradley, come on buddy, wake up…", "dude we need to hurry up and just get him out of here before we attract some unwanted guest...". Another voice chimed in, "We should just leave him, he's infected just like the others.", "We can't do that, we need to help him." Then suddenly, its nest began to move, and it suddenly spoke, "Where is my wife? What in the heck is happening to me…" This frightened the creature, and it did the only thing it knew how to do, it wanted to run, and hide. So, it uncurled itself from the fleshly mount it was resting on, and it began to chew its way through the wall of its nest. Every time it bit the wall, the nest let out a scream, and the xenomorph became covered in some sort of red liquid, all it wanted to do was get out of the nest and find a place to hide. It kept biting, going deeper and deeper into the wall, until it finally saw a little bit of light, it backed out of the fleshy hole it had made in the wall, the nest continued to scream, the xenomorph coiled back and curled up its tail like a spring and lunged forward, it burst through the wall, what it saw scared it even more, these large creatures were staring at it, the nest had stop screaming. The infant xenomorph seized this opportunity and scurried away, before the large creatures knew what to do.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4: Fight or Flight**

Chris and the Group stood in shock at what they had just saw; Bradley who they had worked so hard to try to save died the most violent way imaginable, they understood how the creatures came into the world; but did not expect it to be so violent. Coming to his senses, Chris realized that they are now the only people left alive on the planet. "OK, we need to get the hell out of here, and find some place safe to think of our net move." He said as the group raced toward the exit of the chamber. "We need to make it back to the HYEST, we need to find Josie as well." He continued. As if she had heard her name, Josie appeared from around the corner, covered in blood, which was not hers, and appeared to be unhurt. Heather scooped her up in one single motion as they ran through the corridor, leaving behind the stun baton, which she felt was now a completely useless weapon. As they ran, Jackson monitored his motion tracker and noticed that directly behind them, were massive readings, several creatures, at least ten to fifteen were chasing them.

Then, without warning, a xenomorph dropped from the ceiling, like a monkey, using its tail to hang upside down, it tried to grab Chris, reacting at what seemed like the speed of sound, he raised his incinerator, pulled the trigger, a torrent of flame came from the nozzle, and it grazed the xenomorph on the left side of its face, searing its exoskeleton white. It fell to the ground as the group ran past it. It got up and looked toward the group with a rage in its heart, the other creatures stopping just behind it, ending the pursuit. This Alpha male, would have its prey just as it had with the first five colonists it had killed.

As they continued to run, Jackson noticed that the group of creatures was no longer following them, "Guys, they stopped chasing us...", "I think I pissed off the one in charge, it had set a trap for us and it failed." Chris replied as they continued to run. After what seemed like a lifetime, they finally reached the exit hatch of the tug. "OK, we need to make it back to the HYEST, it's about three kilometers away, Jackson, Ashley, you guys reading anything on the motion trackers to the left or right, mine says the front is clear.", "We are reading nothing in either direction." They replied. "OK, we go on 3…" Chris grabbed Heather's hand, Jon grabbed Amy's, and Jackson, Ashley, and Leslie grabbed each other's hands. "three, two, one…. Go!" Chris shouted. They all sprang from the exit hatch and ran as fast as they could across the field separating the TARTARUS from the HYEST. They reached the safety of the HYEST's entry way without any trouble. Chris hit a button on the control panel, and the door closed behind them.

"Leslie, is it possible that any creatures got on board the HYEST?" Chris asked her.

"It does not appear so, the creatures are mainly sticking to the tug, I'm guessing because there is no "food" for them here." She said to him.

"Just to be safe, I want all the motion trackers on and working as we head for the galley." They slowly made their way to the galley, the automatic lights coming on as they went down each corridor, it had been over thirty-six hours since the ship had seen any visitors, it had been hours of hell for the crew, they are all tired, and scared. Chris knew this because he could see it in their eyes, they were a family, he and Heather had been together for over ten years, Jackson was his first cousin, so they knew each other like brothers. He had known Jon, Amy and Leslie from his college days so roughly fourteen years, and he met Ashley in his hometown at the age of thirteen, more than twenty years. He was not going to let anything happen to his family; he had to come up with a plan. But first, he had to keep his composure, he could not appear weak in front of them, after all he was their captain, the head of this family.

When they finally reached the galley, they shut all the doors, and locked them tight, they then sealed off the vent system, and checked every inch of the room before they finally relaxed. They gathered around the table and Chris was the first to speak up, "OK, I do have some sort of plan for getting us all off this rock and back to our homes on Earth. I think we need to blow the tug's reactor, then take the HYEST and leave the planet, sweet and simple, does anyone have any other suggestions?" he pauses, no one else responds so he continues. "Jon can you pull up a schematic on the TARTARUS, we need to find the reactor coolant system controls, so we can shut them off and set the destruct system."

Jon hit a few controls on a tablet he was holding, as he looked at the pictures, his face began to sink in, "You're not going to like this dude, the reactor room, is only accessible by going through the cryo-chamber…, there is no other way…" after he said this, he sunk down into his seat. Chris could feel the despair in the room, you could almost open your mouth and eat it.

"If no one has a better idea, I suggest we continue with the one Chris has. "said Leslie. They all kind of stared at her in shock, they couldn't believe that she wanted to go with this plan. It was a suicide mission. "OK, if there are no objections, here is what we are going to do, Heather and Amy, I want you two to get to the bridge and finish prepping the HYEST for launch, make sure you lock-down the bridge, and stay safe, and take Josie with you as well. The rest of us are going to tackle the nest and set the reactor to blow. We need to gather new fuel for the incinerators, our motion trackers, and I believe we still have that shipment of rifles we were going to give the colonists before we left." Heather and Amy headed for the bridge, and Chris and the others headed for the cargo storage area.

Once on the bridge, Heather and Amy, pushed several buttons on the door console, which caused the door to shut and mechanical noises were heard as the door locked and sealed itself. Heather put down Josie, who at this point had been washed and cleaned; found an empty seat and curled up to take a nap. Heather and Amy began running around the bridge to each station with a check list in their hands. As they each pushed random buttons, flipped switches, and turned nobs, each of the crew stations sprang to life. Loud clanging, thudding, and creaking could be heard as the ship slowly woke up from its 36-hour slumber. They spent several minutes at each station, checking systems, subsystems, plugging in calculations, and double checking the computers calculations. The ship was preparing for the long journey home, away from this now hellish place.

Chris, and the others had finally reached the cargo hold, it would take a couple of hours to refill all the incinerators and move the rest of the cargo to get to the AR-15 customized rifles and SPAS-12 Shotguns. Each person took a different position and had a different job to complete. Chris was in a P-2000s Power Loader, moving giant containers from one area to another so that he could reach the rifles, and the ammo clips. Jackson was in charge of refilling the incinerators, all seven of them. Jon was repairing the handful of motion trackers, Leslie was assisting him, and Ashley was preparing a handmade armor for all of them to wear if they ran into any combat situations. After about an hour Ashley and Jackson were helping Chris load ammunition into the rifles and shotguns. After another hour, Chris and the rest were suited up in the make shift armor and were each armed with either a shotgun, rifle, an incinerator slung on their backs, and a motion tracker. As Chris and the others made their way to the exit hatch, he knew that they had little chance of surviving the trip into the nest, they had just barely survived their first encounter with the creatures. He doubted they would survive another. But these people were his family, he was gonna try all that he could to make sure they all survived, even if it meant that he didn't.

As they stood in the exit hatch waiting for the outer door to open, Chris looked around at his crew, he could see their nervous looks. Jackson was playing it cool, but Chris knew his cousin was extremely nervous because they were very similar, like brothers. Jon was also calm and cool, but Chris could tell that he was deep in thought, probably thinking about the safety of his wife, just like he was. Ashley was visibly disturbed, still shell-shocked by what she had seen. Leslie was the only one still calm and cool, Chris had known her for at least fourteen years and she was always like this no matter the situation. The doors swung open, and they lifted their motion trackers, once they determined it was clear, they made their way to the TARTARUS.

As the crew runs toward the TARTARUS across the landscape, they cannot help but feel the dread in the air caused by the crimson red glow cast across the landscape from the blood moon high in the sky. The dark shadows darting past them as if pouncing on unsuspecting prey. After ten minutes of running, and dodging unseen foes, they finally reach the entrance hatch to the TARTARUS. They stack up covering each other's backs as they reach the command console. Chris punches his access code into the keypad, the loud beeping from the console making the others nervous. The door then swings open with a loud roar and a rush of air, all is silent inside.

"OK, everyone, stay close and stay alert, I want motion trackers out and call out your targets." Chris said to the others has he lifted his AR-15 customized rifle. As they make their way into the TARTARUS, all is quiet, the only sound that can be heard is the running air filtration system. Jon and Jackson raised their motion trackers, which were completely silent, "There's not a damn thing moving on this tug, or is the damn thing broken?"

"I can assure you that they are in perfect working order." Timed in Leslie, who moved her hand in front of one of them, and it made a beeping sound.

They continued to slowly march toward the cryo-chamber, they had now made it past the crew quarters and the maintenance bays, without any sign of the crew, the one hundred colonists, or those monsters. The group slowly moved across the dark, barely lit corridors, shooting short burst from the flamethrowers down the dark intersections before continuing. Suddenly Chris came to a stop, causing everyone else to bump into each other. In front of them in the shadows was the large looming crooked door, that only had the words "Cryo-Chamber" painted on it.

"OK everyone, get ready, once we go through this door, I imagine every creature hiding in this ship will come out to get us, we get in, save what colonist we can, activate the self-destruct device, and get out, on the count of three…...one…. two…. three." Chris punches the big red door release button. The two yellow caution lights come to life and illuminate the hall in bright amber light, and the door screams to life as it slowly struggles to open, just wide enough for them to pass through; none of the crew were prepared for what awaited them on the other side.

The crew cautiously wait outside the vast silent, black opening. Realizing that the lights are no working, they switch on flashlights that are mounted on their weapons. Soft white light begins to fill the room, "Oh my God, what in the h…" Chris exclaims as he witnesses the scene unfold before him. The cryo-chamber was now completely cocooned by the web like substance, the walls were lined with captured colonist, some of them had the spider-like creatures attached to their faces, others had giant gaping holes in their chest, the new alien structure shined a crimson red in the light of their flashlights, covered in the carnage that had occurred. Above the strange hive type structure, the cryo-tubes are in disarray, some hanging on one support, while others are covered and dripping with blood, and some have had their view windows broken, and within the crew could see that the spider-like creatures were attached to the colonist faces. Unable to handle the stench, and the scene in front of them many of the crew, bent over and began throwing up, but Leslie remained calm, cool, and collected.

"How can you remain so calm?" Ashley asked her.

"I am a scientist, I am used to the sight of blood, and guts, but I find this new hive type structure fascinating, it is a pity we do not have time to study it." The others looked at her in shock, that she would want to study something that has killed so many.

As they make their way through the twist and turns of the hive, stepping over dead bodies, and the carnage, they start to hear a faint moaning sound. "Someone could still be alive." Says Ashley as the moaning becomes louder. Suddenly Chris stops, before the group is a large chamber, the floor is covered in large oval shaped pods, all of them open, along with a strange assortment of tubes, and other slimy structures. As they slowly span their flashlights upward, the silhouettes of the four remaining TARTARUS crew technicians begin to take shape. Three of them have the spider-like creatures attached to their faces, while the last; Jane, seemed to be fine. Suddenly she opens her eyes, "Kill me… please…." She begins to convulse, and shake, and an infant xenomorph began to burst from her chest violently. Before it could finish, Chris and Jackson did not hesitate, and they torched Jane, the infant, and the others. The crew watched in horror as the room filled with dancing reflections of flames and shadows.

The crew continues to push forward, Ashley's motion tracker started to beep slowly, and then it began to get faster and louder, "Guys, I think we have company…." Just as she said this, dark shapes fall from the walls, Chris realizes they had fallen into an ambush…

"Unleash hell on these monsters!" he yells as he pulls the trigger on his rifle. It burst to life in a series of bright flashes and loud noises, and three creatures drop to the floor dead. The group continues to move forward toward the reactor control room, blasting their way through the hordes of creatures. As they reach further and further into the cryo-chamber, the horde of creatures seems to become like a sea of blackness, blocking out all light in the room; the only light coming from their flashlights and burst from their rifles and flamethrowers. They finally get a break in the onslaught, just as the reach the door to the reactor control room, Chris fumbles at the controls as he tries to get the door open. "The door codes are not working!" he yells at the others, "Hold them off while I try to by-pass the door…." The crew of the HYEST surround Chris as he tries code after code, the bodies of the creatures piling up in front of them, allowing the horde to get closer to their intended victims….

The noise in the corridor was unbearable, the xenomorph could not understand how something so small could be so loud. All it wanted to do was get closer to the small fleshy beings that it needed for its children. But the stinging sticks would not let it get close to them. It sat back and watched as countless numbers of its brothers and sisters tried to reach the strange beings but were cut down by the stinging sticks. The beast sat back and waited patiently thinking about how it would reach its victims, as it scanned the corridor, it noticed a small opening in the ceiling, it leapt through the opening and realized it could use this as a way to ambush its victims without worrying about the stinging sticks, it hissed with joy and satisfaction, at its ingenuity. As it began to move down the new corridor, it realized it was joined by one of its younger siblings, "Good, one to help me." It thought to itself, as it continued to stalk the group of beings. It reached the end of the corridor, it stared down at the strange creatures and picked a target, from what it could tell, the creature was a female. It motioned for its sibling to attack the creature next to the female, which was a male. As it leaned down into its pouncing position, it opened its mouth, saliva dripped from its mouth and landed on the female target..., it leapt out of the hole, followed by its sibling, as it sailed through the air, it felt a stinging pain in its side, both of the strange creatures scream as they fall to the floor, just inches from its indented target, its vision becoming blurry and dark…

Leslie pulled at Chris's shoulder, "stop you need to help Jon and Ashley, they have been injured, it looks to be acid burns, I'll handle the door…" Chris hurried to where Jackson was. He was trying his best to cover Ashley and Jon as they were screaming in pain on the floor. "We got to get them outta here, help me pick them up." Chris and Jackson simultaneously grab Ashley and Jon and drag them toward Leslie who somehow managed to get the control room door to open, which swung upward with a loud bang. As they drag Ashley and Jon inside, Chris pulls a grenade out of his pocket, pulls the pin, and tosses it just as the door shuts behind him, "Suck on that you bastards…" a loud explosion is heard along with screams from the creatures and then all that followed was silence.

"Chris, we have a problem…." Leslie tells him as she is looking over an injured Jon and Ashley, "Once we arm the self-destruct mechanism, we will only have twenty minutes to get from here to the HYEST, and off the planet…"


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5: Doomsday**

2 hours later….

"How long will the door continue to hold them off?" Chris asked

"I have no idea, but the creatures bleed acid, so they could possibly sacrifice one of their own to get through the door, but that is just a theory, since we do not know how truly intelligent these creatures are." Leslie replies.

"How are you guys holding up?" he asks Jon and Ashley, "I'm doing better, still hurts like hell though." Jon replies. His body bandaged around half his face and right shoulder from the acid burns. "I'll be fine, once I get some whisky." Ashley replies, her left forearm and thigh wrapped in bandages. They all sat in front of the control panel for the self-destruct sequence, wondering what they were going to do.

"I'm going to radio the HYEST and tell Heather and Amy to leave without us, there is no way we can activate the self-destruct, get through those creatures, make it back to the HYEST, and off the planet in 20 minutes …" Chris said as he thought about the idea of dying on this hell hole of a planet. "I have something to confess…." Leslie chimes in. "I am a synthetic…." As she says this the rest of the crew looks at her dumbfoundedly, "to prove it I have something to show you..." she turns to reveal her side, which is now a gaping hole filled with white liquid and various cords and mechanisms. "I was supposed to fulfill Special Order 938, and bring back the organism, this xenomorph; to the company on Earth But after seeing what this creature is capable of, I feel that by doing so would end humanity as we know it, and I cannot let that happen."

"Why would the Company want this creature? There's no way that these things can be controlled or trained." Ashley asks.

"The company wants them for one simple purpose, not to control or train them, but to use them to eradicate their competition. They will ship the eggs to competing colonial settlements, and just let the creatures run wild, erasing their competition, and then they will sweep in with their own forces and wipe the slate clean, erasing all evidence of the xenomorphs, and putting their own colonist on the planet afterwards. All assets to them are expendable as long as it makes them a profit…. There is one solution to our problem, I will stay behind to activate the self-destruct system, once you reach the HYEST…."

"But you will die…." Chris chimes in. "Thank you Chris, you and your crew have always treated me like I was family….like I was human, I can say that I have not always been treated as such, and that is why I am willing to make this sacrifice, so that humanity can live, so you all can survive. Below us you will find a maintenance tunnel that runs the complete expanse of the TARTARUS, you can use that to reach the entrance, it should be safer than trying to make it through the surface levels." She hits a few buttons on a nearby console and a panel hums to life as it lifts to reveal the maintenance tunnel. "Now go." The remaining HYEST crew pick each other up, battered and beaten, they each say their goodbyes to Leslie, arm themselves and descend into the depths of the Maintenance tunnel. As Chris steps down into the tunnel, he pops up his head and says to Leslie, "Good luck, and remember we love you." His head disappears, and Leslie closes the hatch behind them, a single milky white tear slides down her check, "I love ya'll too." She then begins to furiously punch buttons on the console in front of her.

Chris and Jackson slowly make their way down the maintenance tunnel, slowed down by the fact that they are having to support both Ashley and Jon as they traverse the long, dark tunnel. Silence and darkness are all around them, the only sound that can be heard as the make there way across is the occasional hiss of a steam vent as it relieves its pressure.

"Man, I don't like this at all…. it's too quiet…." Jackson comments to the others

"I agree, we need to stay focused, so cut the chatter…." Chris replies. They continue to make their way down the tunnel, when they reach a four-way interchange; Chris stops, "Do you guys hear that?" Just as he says that, one of the creatures jumps out of the shadows, the group lets loose their weapons and the creatures drops to the floor dead. "OK, we need to really pick up the pace." Chris says as he notices a low, quiet sound that is steadily getting louder, and louder. The creatures have found them and are chasing them. The group begins to run as fast as they can through the maintenance tunnel, passing interchange, after interchange, dodging, and shooting at creatures, and shadows.

"Leslie, I hope you're ready, we are almost out of the maintenance tunnel…." just as Chris says this a single creature, jumps in front of the group, blocking their path. The group stops in their tracks, now stuck between a rock and a hard place. "Chris, what are we gonna do?" Ashley asks nervously. The xenomorph bends down ready to pounce, the group readies their weapons, but just before the xenomorph can pounce, a hatch slams down on its head killing it. "Sorry, that took so long, I am ready to begin the self-destruct sequence." Leslie chimes in to the groups relief.

"OK, we are ready to exit the tunnel, begin the countdown, 20 minutes, correct?" Chris asks.

"Yes, and good luck." She replies. She then cuts off the intercom, and rolls across the room to another console, she hits a couple of buttons, and a soft, low hum fills the room as a hydraulic lid lifts to reveal a new console on the floor. Leslie gets down on her knees in front of this new console and begins to press more buttons, as she does four silver steel cylinders rise out of the console. She inserts a long firing pin into each one of the cylinders, presses a single button on each one, and one by one the cylinders slowly begin to descend back into the console. Once the last cylinder reaches its destination, a crimson red light begins to flash, and an alarm begins to sound. Steam begins to pour out of every vent in the room. Over the loud speaker the computer is heard;

Attention! The cooling units for the power reactor are not functioning! The reactor will overload in t-minus twenty minutes. You have twenty minutes to reach safe distance. Attention!

Leslie relaxed into her chair, she could hear the xenomorphs banging up against the control room door, she knew that soon, they would break through the door and kill her. She smirked, to think that a synthetic thinks about death, she contemplated what it would be like to cease to exist, as she sat their listening to the alarm sounds, she came to a realization, she did not want to die. So, she decided to act. She rolled back up to the console, took a long silver cord and jammed it into her neck, she began to push and punch buttons on the console….

The rest of the HYEST crew were now running across the crimson red field toward the HYEST as fast as they could, Jon and Ashley were now able to support themselves because the pain killers had finally kicked in. They could still hear the TARTARUS computer over the loud speakers,

Attention! The cooling units for the power reactor are not functioning! The reactor will overload in t-minus fifteen minutes. You have fifteen minutes to reach safe distance Attention!

Chris was thinking to himself, thank God we are half way there… they had not run into any trouble or a single creature, the alarm must have had the added effect of attracting all the creatures back to their nest. As they continue running, the HYEST becomes larger and large in the distance, until the ship is finally within reach. The group make it to the outer door, Chris punches the intercom switch, and was barely able to get the words out of his mouth, "Heather, … Amy, open the …. outer …... door, …. we are here…." The door then springs to life, and the four of them enter the lift and enter the HYEST. "Jackson, take Jon and Ashley to the med bay, I'm headed to the bridge…" Chris ran for the bridge, once he reached the door, he pushed in the combination and the door swung open, "Heather, Amy are we ready to lift off?"

"Almost, just need to punch up navigation, system controls, and then get the command console up and running, we need your pass-code to get it started…" Heather replied.

"OK, you handle the navigation systems, Amy get system controls up, we are down three people…I'll handle the command console…" Ordered Chris as he jumped into his command chair, "Roger!" they replied to his commands

"MUTHUR, put the TARTARUS Computer on the loud speakers"

Attention! The cooling units for the power reactor are not functioning! The reactor will overload in t-minus ten minutes. You have ten minutes to reach safe distance Attention!

"Man, this is gonna be close…." they all said in unison. The ship began to hum and come to life... outside the vertical thrusters came to life, throwing dust and debris as the ship slowly rose into the air…

The TARTARUS computer was still being broadcast over the loudspeakers.

Attention! The cooling units for the power reactor are not functioning! The reactor will overload in t-minus five minutes. You have five minutes to reach safe distance. Attention!

The ship continued to rise higher and higher, it began to pitch and turn away from the TARTARUS. On the bridge, Chris, Heather, and Amy were at their stations, Chris remotely controlling the other systems usually commanded by Jackson, Jon, Ashley, and Leslie. In the med bay, Jackson was busy strapping Jon and Ashley down to their seats, so he could continue to administer aid to them both. The ship began to creak, pop, and crack as the metal super structure stretched and contracted as the ship tried to escape the grasp of the planets gravity…

Leslie, still sat at her chair in the reactor control room frantically press and punching buttons, the computer chimed in again over the loud speaker,

Attention! The cooling units for the power reactor are not functioning! The reactor will overload in t-minus fifteen seconds seconds. You have fifteen seconds to reach safe distance. Attention!

She ignored the warning and kept on with her work. She finally pressed a final button, just one more to press…. Attention! The cooling units for the power reactor are not functioning! The reactor will overload in t-minus ten seconds. You have ten seconds to reach safe distance. Attention!

T-minus nine, eight, seven, six… the creatures burst through the door, the lead xenomorph could see the strange creature in front of it sitting in a chair, it was not like the other humans it had encountered, instead of the soft green glow, this one has no aura at all. The xenomorph along with several of its siblings lunged at the creature and grab it, it yelled at them, "Screw you!" it yells. The xenomorph could hear a strange sound fill the room , five, four, three,…just as the creature reaches over and presses something, the xenomorph grabs the creature by the neck and is preparing to make the killing blow, it stops, perplexed because its prey is laughing in its face, then it hears the loud voice continue…two, one…, then there is a bright flash of light, and siring pain, then all is black.

The TARTARUS burst into a giant mushroom cloud of fire and smoke, but luckily Leslie's plan had worked, she was now part of the data stream that she sent to the HYEST via her connection to the console, she now traveled in a binary form through space toward the HYEST communication dish. She had in a sense saved her soul…

Alarms began blare loudly on the Bridge of the HYEST, "We has shock waves coming in, from the explosion, t- minus 10 seconds to impact…" yelled Heather. Just as she said this MUTHUR's voice came over the load speaker

Brace for impact in t-minus 10 seconds.

Chris pressed a button near his console, "Jack, get Jon, Ash, and yourself secured, we are about to be hit by shock waves from the explosion…" Jackson chimed in response, " Already done!" the computer continued the countdown, Impact in 5 seconds, 4, 3, 2, 1…

The ship shook violently, the metal shaking, and creaking vigorously, sparks filling the room, the lights flickering on and off as it was hit by the first shock wave, then there was a brief moment of stillness, then the ship began to shake again more violently as it was hit by the final shock wave. Then all was calm, once Chris and the others collected themselves, he radioed down to Jackson, "You guys ok down there?"

"Yeah, a little shaken and stirred, but other wise ok." Jackson responded

"Ok, guys I want you to run systems checks, and damage assessments on all systems and the ship structures" Chris ordered. With that order, everyone on the bridge began to press buttons and flip switches on their consoles, and the screens came to life with read outs. "The structure of the ship has sustained minor damage, but nothing that is going to keep us from reaching Earth." Heather reported. "All computer systems seem to be functioning normally." Reported Amy.

Suddenly, Amy's console lit up, "Chris, you are not gonna believe this, but we have a communication coming in from Leslie….!" Exclaimed Amy.

"Put it through to my console…" he replied. His console lit up and all that it said was, "Hello Chris, this is Leslie…." As he read this the speakers at his console came on and a familiar voice could be heard, "Chris, I just wanted to thank you and the others for treating me as if I was human, and a part of your family… I was able to transfer my consciousness into the HYEST computer system, I have replaced the MUTHUR unit, and I can now give you access to the information that you have been searching for on Special Order 938, and other related incidents, we cannot let the Company get away with what it has done to us, and the colonist on the TARTARUS."

As Chris watched, his console lit up with detailed records of the past fifty-two years of the Company's attempts to get the xenomorph for their research. The first was an ill-fated mission of a survey ship called the Prometheus in 2093, then the colonial ship Covenant in 2104, and then the final entry was of a ship called the Nostromo in 2122. All these incidents are on the MIA list of ships that have vanished under mysterious or unknown circumstances. There are even some small accounts of interactions with these creatures in the early 2000s on Earth.

"Leslie, bring up the rear camera…." Chris commands. His console lights up all that he sees on the monitor is a planet of water. The TARTARUS, the island, and the creatures had been completely erased from existence. He eased back into his command chair, let out a sigh of relief, and then pressed the loudspeaker button, "Jackson, you guys OK back there?"

"Yeah we are all doing great."

With that the whole crew including Leslie let out a yell, surprising those down in the med bay who did not know about what happened. After patching up some of the damaged systems on the ship, and setting the auto pilot, the crew sits down for one last meal before they go into hyper sleep. Josie playfully chased a remote-control ball around the galley (that Leslie was controlling) while the rest of the crew watched and began to make their plates. "I would like to propose a toast, to those that we lost, may we never forget their sacrifice…and to our family, may it ever be strong." With that they raised their glasses and drank.

"Leslie, play Take Me Home, Country Roads…", said Chris

"Gladly" she relied over the speakers. As the song began to play, everyone started to sing the lyrics, even Leslie's voice came over the loud speaker singing. They sat and enjoyed each other's company, Chris and Heather sat back in their seats holding hands, smiling, glad that their family was still whole and safe.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6: Stowaway**

Amy helped Jon into his hyper-sleep pod, "How are you holding up dear?"

"I'll be OK, thankfully I won't need a costume for next Halloween." He replies with a chuckle. "I'm just glad you're safe, I love you." She leans over into the pod and kisses him as the lid lowers, it seals shut with a small hiss, and Jon drifts off to sleep. Jackson helps Ashley down in to her pod, "You know none of this was your fault, right?"

"But I signed the order to send all of us to that hellish place…."

"You had no way of knowing what would happen, it's the company's fault, they are to blame for all those that were lost, and they will get what they have coming to them, you know what they say about karma…"

"Thanks." She replied as the lid came down on her pod, sealing with another small hiss. As the last four remaining crew members began to get ready for their own trip into the hyper-sleep pods, and alarm started to blare over the loudspeaker…, " Leslie, what's with the emergency alarm?" Chris asks her.

"Unidentified organisms detected on level two of the ship, containment procedures activated throughout the ship…I have sealed the vent system and access to this level from the creatures, they are isolated on level two of the ship somewhere between junctions B-2 and B-4."

"OK, Heather and Amy, take Josie and seal yourselves off on the bridge, Jackson, you come with me, we are going to deal with these bastards one last time…." The door to the hyper-sleep chamber swung open with a loud hiss of steam, Heather scooped up Josie into her arms and ran down the corridor to the bridge followed closely by Amy. They reached the bridge, punched the emergency door button and it came down with a loud slam and moving gears as it locked down. Heather put Josie in an animal crate, so that she would not have to worry about trying to find her on the bridge, then she and Amy both grabbed a pair of headsets, "Chris, we made it to the bridge and the door is sealed, we are safe."

"10-4." He replied. "Please be careful dear, I love you." Heather tells him.

"I will, and I love you too." He replies as he and Jackson race toward a small weapons storage locker in the airlock on the main level. "Leslie, can you come up with a plan to get these creatures off the ship?" he asks. "I already have one, we need to lure the creatures to the airlock on level two, we seal them in the room, and then blast them out into space."

"I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it! LET'S DO IT!" The two of them finally reach the weapons locker, Chris opens the locker to reveal 2 pistols, a shotgun, one motion tracker, and one flamethrower unit. Jackson takes the shotgun, pistol, and the motion tracker. Chris grabs the other pistol and the flamethrower. "You ready?" Chris asks Jackson. "Dude I was born ready." They slowly leave the locker room and make their way to a ladder that has been sealed off.

"Heather, lockdown the Hyper-sleep chamber as well, and Leslie as we go, re-seal the ladders and doors behind us."

"Roger" Heather and Leslie reply. Chris presses a small button next to the ladder and a small hatch swings open silently, and the two men descend into the belly of the ship, once they reach the bottom of the ladder, the hatch reseals, and all is silent around them.

"OK, Leslie I need you to guide us to the xenomorphs, use the internal sensors to get an idea of where they are hiding."

"Continue down the maintenance hall, at junction B-2 take a left and wait." The two men slowly make their way down the hall, which is littered with all kinds of mechanisms, hissing steam pipes, and dim emergency lighting. Chris has the flamethrower pointed forward ready to fire at any moment, and Jackson has his eyes fixed on the motion tracker with the shotgun in his other hand, ready to use. They come down to a junction, B-2 is displayed on the way, the way forward is blocked, which was not a surprise to either man, due to the contamination protocols, all junctions are sealed off. "OK, Leslie we have reached junction B-2, where to next?"

"The creatures appear to be in the next junction, B-3, but I cannot be one hundred percent certain of this…be careful, I am opening the door to the next section now." The door in front of them slides open, revealing the next long hallway, which both men knew lead to a large cargo hold, where the xenomorphs had many different places to hide. They reach the cargo hold without incident. But as they step into the room, Jackson's motion tracker goes off…. "where is the signal coming from?" Chris asks. "I have no clue; the transmission is being distorted by interference or this dumb thing is malfunctioning."

"OK, we do this the old-fashioned way, check your corners and we go one section at a time." They move slowly into the room, as they do they can hear the hiss of the xenomorphs, they then realize that they are being hunted….

The xenomorph could sense that its prey was near, it could hear their strange sounds. As it stalked them, it could see that both creatures were armed, one with a burning stick, and the other with the loud boom stick. So, it knew it would have to strike quickly and carefully, or it would be killed. It motioned over to its sibling, the idea was to split the strange creatures up and attack them one on one. So, the sibling went off to the right, and made a small growl. This tactic worked it could see the two strange fleshy creatures talking to one another, then it saw one point in the direction of its sibling, and the other creature began to move off toward the right. It thought to itself, great, my plan is working. It continued to stalk the one with the burning stick, it was hungry, and it wanted fresh meat. It climbed along the dark areas of the ceiling, trying to stay out of sight and in the shadows. It knew that if it found an opening it had to take it. It waited until its prey was isolated into a room on the far side, it had been very patient and laid in wait, the fleshy creature stood at the entrance to a room, its back to its stalker. The creature new that this was its chance to get its food, it lunged at its target, but just at the last second the fleshy beast turned around and swung its burning stick at its body. It felt a sharp pain against its back as it was thrown into the small room, it watched as the door shut in front of it and a yellow bright light began to flash and an alarm went off. It could see the fleshy beast staring at it through a small opening in the door, "Asta La Vista, Ugly!" it said, then it heard another sound, a door was opening, as it swung open, the outside began to suck everything that was not nailed down out of the room, the xenomorph realized that it would be sucked out into space, it sunk its claws into the floor, clinging to life, the floor panel, flung up into the air, and within a split second, the xenomorph found itself floating outside, it began to feel cold, and tired, slowly it started to lose consciousness, drifting off into the blackness of space…

"Holy crap, that was close….!" Chris exhaled. Jackson was now back at his side, as they were watching the airlock close, they could hear a low growl, as they looked in the direction of the sound, the other beast jumps down from the shadows, it looks at them, yells, and begins to run. The two men chase after it, "Leslie, I want you to create a path for the xenomorph to follow, open all the door ways that lead to the engine room, then once we are passed them close them again. I have a new plan, we are going to trap it in the engine room exhaust chamber and burn it alive."

"OK, Chris, I will open all doorways and hatches that lead to the engine room, good luck." The com fell silent, suddenly the sounds of clanging, and hissing, and banging could be herd throughout the deck as doors were opened. As they ran through doorways the doors instantly shut behind them. They finally reached the engine room, and the final door shuts behind them, sealing them in the room with the demon.

The engine room was filled with a soft red glow, machines, computer terminals, and other mechanisms fill the room, creating a dance of shadows. Jackson and Chris stood at the door way, the motion tracker was completely silent, there was nothing in the room or at least that was moving. "OK, we are gonna take this one step at a time…together. Stay frosty." Chris begins to move cautiously into the engine room, followed closely by Jackson. "The exhaust chamber is on the other end of the engine room, we have to lure the xenomorph into the room, trap it, and then make our way to the control room to shut down the exhaust system long enough to burn the creature alive." As they continue to make their way across the chamber, the motion tracker comes to life, before the men can react the creature drops from its hiding place and strikes at a valve on the wall, damaging the valve, a large fire spout spews from the damaged valve, knocking the two men down, and separating them from each other…. "Get to the control room Jackson, be ready for my signal….!" Chris springs back to his feet and scans the area, he sees the xenomorph staring him down, and recognizes it. The left side of this creature's face was burned white…

"You son of a….!" Chris says out loud. The xenomorph hisses at him in return as if to acknowledge the it recognizes him as well. Chris quickly runs around the corner, yelling at the creature, "Come on, come get the fresh meat…!" his plan is to use himself as bait to lure the creature into the exhaust chamber. The xenomorph is keeping pace with Chris, when he turns a corner the xenomorph is right behind him. Chris runs through the twist and turns of the engine machinery, knowing that if he stops he is dead. Chris finds a small compartment to hide in and catches his breath. He could hear the xenomorph growling and snarling as it tries to find where Chris was hiding. As the sounds get louder, he knows that the beast is getting closer to his position. He slowly shuts the compartment door, hoping he can hide from it, and then get the drop on it. The exhaust chamber is the only door open on this end of the engine room, if he can get behind the creature, he can force it in the chamber with the flamethrower and seal it in the chamber.

The xenomorph was now just outside of the compartment, Chris leaned against the back of the compartment and held his breath as he could see the creature through the small vents in the door, it was studying the compartment door, as if it could see or smell him inside. But as suddenly as it stopped, it moved on, apparently it did not detect him, or it was waiting in ambush. He decided to take the chance, he opened the door and walked out, checking both his right side and left side. Suddenly the xenomorph jumped in front of him, Chris let out a plume of flame from the flamethrower and the creature ran in retreat down the corridor. Chris ran after it in hot pursuit, releasing small shots from the flamethrower as he ran. After what seemed like an eternity of running, he finally reached the entrance to the exhaust chamber, but the creature was nowhere to be found.

As Chris turned around he could hear Jackson scream, but then it was silent again. As he began to move toward the scream, the creature appeared from around the corner, "Clever girl…" Chris exclaims as the creature growls at him, its white scar shining crimson in the red glow of the room. It begins to move toward him, in stunned horror, Chris begins to stumble backwards into the exhaust chamber tripping over the threshold to the door, the creature then takes the opportunity given to it and lunges at Chris, thinking quickly he presses the trigger on the flamethrower and drenches the creature in flames, it stumbles past him, and begins thrashing about on the floor of the chamber in pain. Chris leaps to his feet and turns the corner to the emergency locking mechanism for the door. The xenomorph gets up and just as it tries to lunge at Chris the door closes shut, the beast hits the door with a loud thud. The room suddenly fills with flames and the xenomorph begins to burn, screaming, and yelling in pain.

Chris turns around and slowly falls to the floor, seeing Jackson, standing in the control room. "We got you, you demon." He got up just as the fire began to die down. The xenomorph had ceased to be, as the door opened, all that was left was a small pile of ashes.

"Heather, Amy we got them, you can end the lock-down, Leslie, end the quarantine procedures.

"Affirmative" she replies. Throughout the ship the alarms are stopped, and doors are un-sealed. The ship grows silent again….

Back in the Hyper-sleep chamber, Jackson now in his pod, is talking with Chris, "Dude, we just lived through hell, didn't we?"

"Yes, we did, and we lived to tell about it, and we are gonna make sure the Company pays for our trouble." They fist bump, hug, and the pod lid closes on his tube. Chris then makes his way across the room to where Heather was seated with Josie in her lap. "It's that time again baby…"

"I know, I just hate the cryo-tubes so much, they make me nervous..."

"I know Heather, but thankfully the next time we wake up, we will be home in Earth's orbit." Heather climbs down into the cryo-tube, Chris places Josie next to her, "Here's a little companion to keep you company." Chris says. Josie jumps on to Heather's chest and licks at her face, then lays down next to her as if she knows that they are about to go to sleep.

"I love you Heather." Chris says as he leans in and kisses her.

"I love you too" She replies. The lid begins to shut, "Sleep tight." he says to her as the lid comes down with a soft hiss of air as it seals shut. Chris walks the corridors of the ship, doing his last rounds, shutting down unnecessary systems, and activating ones that are needed for the long 7.4 light year journey back to Earth. He reaches the bridge and sits at his command chair one last time, double checking the ships systems. "Leslie, I just want to say thank you for helping us back there, without your help we would have died, and these creatures would have made it back to Earth…."

"You're welcome, and thank you for believing in me, and making me a part of your family." She replies through the speakers.

"When we make it back to Earth, we will find you a new body, we miss having you on board, you are a part of our family after all." He says to her.

"What kind of body?" she asks.

"How about one with long blonde hair, big boobs, and a kick ass attitude?" he replies with a small chuckle.

"I don't think so, how about like the one I use to have?"

"Sounds good, are you OK to run the ship on your own?"

"Yes, you should head to the hyper-sleep compartment now." With that he gets up and heads to the chamber. As he reaches the chamber he lays down into his pod, as the lid closes he says to Leslie, "Ensure we have a nice and smooth ride back home, no more surprises please."

"Aye, Captain, sleep well." She replies. As the lid closes he drifts off to sleep, the ship becomes silent again, no longer is there chatter or music, just the humming of the machinery in the ships corridors, the occasional thud or clang in the distance. The lights gradually turning off section by section as the ship slowly drifts off to sleep. The bridge is once again dark and void of activity, except for the sound of Leslie's voice singing…, "Show me the way to go home….I'm tired and I wanna go to bed…." she continues singing as the ship leisurely drifts off into space toward its next destination…home.

The End


End file.
